Rhetorical question of the day:

If your 2-year-old knows the phrase, "...supersized with a coke", does that mean that you eat too much fast food?

Come again?!

Today at lunch (Ben was eating Alpha-getti):

Ben: "What's that letter?"
Gord: "That's a P!"
Ben: "Yeah...Beef!"

What day is it?!

Okay, I'm sorry that our posts are few and far between - I'm losing track of days over here!

Yesterday was Ella's first monthday! Yay baby girl! She is amazingly wonderful and beautiful and we can't get enough of her. She smiles here and there, the best ones being in her sleep, as all babies do. I've really noticed that she's grown - must be mommy's yummy milk! - this past week or so. She's wearing mainly 3-6 month clothes - some 6 month sleepers - depending on the brand. It's quite funny how your child can fit a 3 month size from one store and a 6 month size from another. I always found this with Ben too...he still wears 18 month clothes from Please Mum, but from the Gap or Old Navy, it has to be 2T.

I'm totally going to jinx myself when I make the next statement - Ella's been sleeping through the night! Not every night, but 5 out of the last 9 nights, from 11:00 pm to 5:00 or 6:00 am. I still have my doubts that it's okay, but I called the breastfeeding hotline and they said that as long as she's still eating 8-12 times a day, I can feed her when she wants to be fed. kellymom.com said the same thing. So, I'm going with it.

Ben is a riot these days. He talks so much (just like Uncle Chris) and we can't get anything past him. Ben can also be a real handful - when he doesn't want to do something, he really lets you know.

Here are some random stories from the last week or so...

Ella is a poop machine. One evening, I had to change her sleeper and undershirt THREE TIMES after changing her out of her "day" clothes. All this in less than an hour. Less than half of an hour, even. I am spending a fortune on Baby Oxy-Clean! (But man, does that stuff work!) I'm sure she'll love these stories when she's 16.

Ben had a chocolate milk in the car the other day, while we were on our way to visit with some of my family. Next thing I know, he's puking it up all over himself! Yikes, did it smell! He'd had strawberry yogurt for breakfast too, so imagine a vomit smell tinged with strawberry and chocolate! Blech! He bawled his eyes out. I had to pull the car over to clean him up, and then drive home to do a full wardrobe change on him (and a partial wardrobe change on Ella, the poop-o-matic) before we headed to my cousin's house. What a morning! And it was a hot day, so when we left my cousin's house, the car REALLY stunk. Double blech!

I went to a book party the other night. I spent a small fortune (for us!) on Usborne books, but I can't help myself when it comes to books! I want my kids to have every book I or they see! Is that a crime?

I was a neglectful mommy this morning - when Ben woke up, I put a video in the VCR and gave him a glass of milk and a yogurt-covered-granola-bar so that I could go back to bed for a while (Ella did not sleep through the night last night). Tsk tsk tsk...

Random cuteness

Ben was eating his lunch today, which consisted of Ritz crackers, cheese and yogurt, and as I was finishing my soup, this is what I heard:

"One...two...three...good counting Ben!" (He was counting his crackers.)

Then he started counting his fingers. "No, this one's seven. No, it's this one!"

After lunch, Ben was playing in the living room, and I heard him saying, "He went that way. (points) And he said he went that way! (points in opposite direction). That's coming from Sesame Street - specifically, Journey to Ernie. Big Bird tries to find Ernie, and always runs into the two-headed monster. Big Bird asks them if they've seen Ernie, and they each say yes and point in opposite directions. It's amazing what sticks in his little head!

He has also mastered the perfect hug, and he likes to give tons of them! What a sweetie!

And, might I say, you are all lucky to have gotten back-to-back blog posts from me!

Where does the time go?

Holy crap, time is flying!

Ben seems to age more every day - the things he comes up with! Right now, things are "interesting" to him. And he plays so actively - he likes to head-butt and climb all over us. He likes to jump on the couch, or be thrown onto it! His new favorite book is one called "I Love You Through and Through" and he'll read it to himself in bed, after we say good-night. Adorable.


I can't believe that Ella is going to be 3 weeks old tomorrow. She's awake more and more during the day, but she still stays up really late - like midnight. Last night was her first real night in her crib. Until now, her and I have been sleeping in the living room, her on my chest or nestled in the crook of my arm, while I lay on the couch. Whatever gets her and I some sleep, right? But we decided to give it the 'ole college try last night, and she did pretty good. We swaddled her up (which ALWAYS worked with Ben, but she wasn't a big fan of when she was first born) and tucked her in under another blanket, and she stayed asleep. I put her in there at 1:00 last night (give me a break, we were watching the Survivor finale on time-shift!), and she woke up for a feeding at 3:00, and then woke up for the day at 8:30 or so. Not too shabby! We'll see how tonight goes...

Ella will smile here and there, but so far, we're associating it with gas. Hopefully she'll smile for us soon - she looks sooooo cute when she smiles (has gas)! Imagine her this way, only cuter:


And OMG, can she poop. She's going to cost us a fortune in diapers. And water and laundry detergent to wash all the clothes she dirties. Today, I went to change her diaper. I get it all changed, and she lets another one go. So I grab the next diaper, and as I'm taking the now dirty one off, she starts to pee. So I get her into another clean diaper and threatened her growing wardrobe. She wised up and held it in, until the next feeding anyways! I asked Gord if Ben was this bad, and maybe our memories are a little foggy, but we really don't think his timing was as bad as Ella's is!

Here are some other random pictures of visitors we've had:

Great-Grandma Lil (my dad's mom)


Cousin Ian, who is only four days younger than her:


And to finish off the post, we could not be prouder!

Ella is growing!

We took Ella to her first pediatrician's appointment today. All is well! She weighed in at a healthy 9 pounds 12 ounces, exactly one pound more than she was at birth! Go Ella - what a breastfeeder! She also measured in as 20 inches, which is bizarre 'cause she apparently was 22 inches when she was born. Whatever...we don't know which one to believe. She already can't wear a couple of sleepers 'cause they're too short for her, so I'm leaning towards 22 inches. She also has some baby acne on her face - it looks a lot worse than it really is. Doc said it'll clear up in a few days.

Today was also the day we took Ella to our respective places of work to show her off. Everyone was very impressed with her cuteness. My co-workers also gushed about Ben. He was in rare form today! He was jumping from square to square (the pattern in the carpet) and wow-ing everyone with his verbal skills. He was telling the ladies "I'm Ben!" when they asked who he was. Very charming! He also got to eat two pieces of cake at 10:00 in the morning!

Then at Daddy's work, he got to "play race" on the computer - we go to the Thomas the Tank Engine site and let him play games and do puzzles. Ben LOVES it.

That's all for now. Sorry we don't blog much - Gord usually takes the computer to work with him, so I can usually only blog in the evening, and the evenings are pretty lazy around here. I'll try to do better...and post more pictures.

Pics and a wee update.

Well, we just had a wonderful weekend with our little family. Not much happened (except for the trip to Grandma and Grampa's - see below) but we just had a nice time hanging out together. Some pics:

Ella being coy:

Little Ella Bathtime:

Our little Ray Charles:

So this weekend we decided to take the plunge. With a big thank you to Grampa Ken and Grandma Wendy, we decided to get a Digital SLR camera. I assume it will just start taking beautiful pictures by itself. Seriously, I like it for the speed at which it can take pictures. (Turn on, press button, WHAM. Picture.) We still like our lil' digital, as the SLR is a little bulky to just tote along for candid shots. Here is a picture of our newest baby:

And some of the amazing pictures it took while we were visiting Grandma and Grampa Potter this Sunday:

Grandma and Ella:

Ella loving Mommy:

Some Brother/Sister Love Time:

Our Little Sweetheart:

We'll keep posting as stuff (or pictures) happen!

Gordo